On Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, 2025, we held our 6th Annual Youth Climate Summit of the Lehigh Valley. This year’s theme was “From Global to Local,” highlighting the global nature of many of the issues driving climate change as well as the capacity for local action.

On Friday, we welcomed over 50 middle and high school students and their teachers. We kicked things off with a Science on a Sphere presentation introducing the “Global to Local” theme along with some of the basics of climate science.

To set the stage for the rest of the day, we were lucky to have the Mosaic Youth Chorus (MYC) perform in front of the Science on a Sphere. MYC gives an outlet to youth in the Lehigh Valley, aged 11 through 18, who want to make a difference in their community through their singing. Their spring concert this year focuses on the theme “Life is Written in Water,” exploring our relationship to our planet. They performed selections from their repertoire alongside datasets on the Science on a Sphere including views of Earth at night from space, drought risk, real-time precipitation, wildfires, projected temperature increases, and more. In the words of one Mosaic performer, “I think music has a way to touch people and their emotions in a way that facts and evidence often can’t.” Another adds, “music brings everyone together, some way, somehow.”

After the choir performance, students joined Megan McBride, director of Buy Fresh Buy Local of the Greater Lehigh Valley, to explore the connections between local food and climate. Students learned about some of the ways our global industrial food system affects the environment as well as human health. Moving back to the local level, they focused on the wealth of local farms and producers we have in the Lehigh Valley and how we can support them.

Civic engagement panel in front of the Science on a Sphere

Next, we hosted a panel featuring Patrick Painter, Nurture Nature Center’s Research Specialist, Mayor of Bethlehem, J. William Reynolds, and PA State Representative, Robert Freeman. Attendees considered civic engagement and ways to get involved at the school, city, state, and even international levels. Students took advantage of the time to ask the panelists questions about how to address obstacles when trying to make changes in their communities.

Zooming back out to the global level, students participated in a Science on a Sphere show about Fast Fashion and the transportation required to bring our mass produced clothes across the globe to our closets. They looked at the tags in their own clothes to see how far they had traveled.

As the Fast Fashion session wrapped up, we could already smell the next activity across the hall – a plant-based cooking demonstration for nachos with sunflower seed “meat” and cashew “queso.” Jason Sizemore of Butterhead Kitchen showed students how he made each component while explaining the positive impact even one switch from an animal product to a plant-based food can make. Many students were surprised how much they liked the nachos and excited to get the recipes to try making them at home!

Finally, our participants visited the Sustainability Expo, where 20 local groups were tabling with hands-on activities, information about their work, and ideas for how young people can get involved. Students worked to complete an Expo Scavenger hunt, including items such as “visit the LANTA bus demonstration,” “take a selfie with Mary from Aevidum in the banana suit,” and “Learn what watershed you live in with the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley.” Students reported in our event survey feeling less anxious about climate change and more empowered and confident about solutions after their day at the summit. We hope they will continue to build on that momentum all year!

Students visit the Sustainability Expo in our first floor space

We didn’t want to limit that inspiration and empowerment only to students, so Saturday we hosted Community Day at the Youth Climate Summit, where over 40 youth, their family members and other adults came to take part and learn about their own roles in taking climate action.

Audience members await Mosaic Youth Chorus’s performance

Mosaic kicked off the day again, with the lyrics to their final song, “Apple Tree,” taking on new meaning in a room of mostly adults:

Let her save the world, she is just a girl

Let him save the world, he is just a boy

Maddie Davidson, a student at Muhlenberg College, presents about her project supported by Allentown’s Youth Climate Action Fund

After the performance, attendees heard from several students presenting spotlights on climate and sustainability projects they are working on as well as climate solutions they think are particularly important. Presentation topics included hair mats to clean up oil spills, hydroponic gardening to reduce food insecurity, an elementary education program on the importance of trees, the power of music to make a change, and our own Nurture Nature Center CREATE Connections Interns on the work they have done with us.

Community Day attendees wrapped up their visit with time at the Sustainability Expo, continuing the networking and connection building that started there the day before. While we had to cancel our bike ride with Community Bike Works and tree planting with the City of Easton’s Urban Conservation Department due to rain, the weather could not put a damper on the enthusiasm of those learning how they can play a part in something productive and positive, helping to make a global change by acting in their own small corner of the world.

Students at the Sustainability Expo show off their new Buy Fresh Buy Local reusable tote bags

The Youth Climate Summit is part CREATE Connections, a project of the Nurture Nature Center under award NA23SEC0080002 from the Environmental Literacy Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or the U.S. Department of Commerce.